Ao WO U & No. 83 


W oman’s Union Missionary Society 


MORNING CALLS IN INDIA 


By Miss S. F. GarpNer 


I‘ has been the wish of one of my friends in America that we 

might go together to make morning calls in India. We take it 
for granted that she means on our native friends of Cawnpore; 
therefore we prepare to go with much pleasure! Would that in very 
reality every woman in the blessed home-land might spend a few 
mornings in the homes of India. How their hearts would go out 
toward the women in their sad, desolate lives. It would no longer 
be necessary to plead for help or workers! 

But in India morning means morning, so I am here for you 
promptly at half-past five. It will not be necessary to make an 
elaborate toilet; but be sure you take your sun hat and umbrella, 
for you will not be able to get on without them, and a good stout 
stick to drive away the dogs. We will drive as far as the alley that 
leads to our first house, and then walk through to the court beyond. 
What is that bundle rolled up near the wall? That is somebody 
finishing his morning nap. It isa pity toawaken him or I would touch 
the roll to show you how quickly an apparently lifeless heap of rags 
may become animated. It reminds me of an incident which 
happened when I first came to India. Going out one day to a 
corner of the back veranda, and wishing to reach a nail above my 


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head I stepped upon something that I thought was a pile of matting, 
when suddenly the pile sat up and looked me in the face reproach- 
fully. It was our night watchman, covered head and feet in the 
matting, taking his day-time sleep. 

But here we are at the entrance of our first house, where lives a 
well-to-do family of Hindus, whom I have known for a long time. 
Their only son has just been married and the young bride is with his 
parents. Stay here in the court a minute and I will run inside and 
see if they are up, and while I am gone, just observe the carving on 
those doors, not common in Cawnpore. But here comes the new 
wife, who is a great favorite with her old mother-in-law. She looks 
a little sleepy this morning; is probably just up; that is her mother- 
in-law behind, a kind-hearted old lady, whom everybody loves, and 
her son is like her. The wife is never unkindly treated. Although 
much better off than many young wives, at first she was not quite 
happy in her new surroundings, for she came out of a family where 
there were seven children, and felt the change to this quiet house 
very keenly; but now we have been teaching her and she knows 
how to do various kinds of work, and her days pass very pleasantly 
and rapidly. Would you like to hear her read a chapter in her book 
of Bible stories and see the last pair of slippers she has made for her 
young husband? Bring them, Lakshmi, and show our American 
friend how well an Indian girl can read and sew who has only been 
taught one year. She reads her Bible too very intelligently, and 
often asks thoughtful questions. 

Just opposite is another house where | will introduce you to three 
young girls, all married, though the oldest is not yet eighteen and 
the youngest only in her thirteenth year. There is a great difference 
between them and the fortunate pupil just visited, for their husbands 
are arbitrary and often cruel, and their mother-in-law not much less 
so, and their lives are sad and miserable. Until we came to teach 


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them, the youngest one spent most of her time in tears, but now she 
is interested in her books and is happier. Be careful going up the 
narrow stairway. We shall find them in the upper room-waiting for 
their ‘‘ Miss Sahib.” The one with the red sari trimmed with gold, 
is the eldest, who always does the talking, if there is no one near of 
whom she is afraid. The next one is a very bright girl, and though 
she has only been reading with us six months, she can read any 
Hindi book that is put into her hands. The youngest is so shy that 
she will not uncover her face while a stranger is present; but she is 
a loving, lovable child. Their husbands are away at this time, and 
fortunately the mother-in-law, too, is engaged, so we shall be able 
to speak more freely with them. What would not they become in 
one of our good home schools? They have better voices for singing 
than many Indian women, and we will hear them sing one of their 
favorite hymns: 


‘Why should this world, this evil world, ensnare my evil heart; 
Hold fast thy soul and wisely spend of life this fleeting part.” 


Listen to the last verse: 

‘*O blessed Christ! this sinful one thy servant ever would be; , 
In heaven or earth no one have I; no one, O Christ, save thee!’ 

This hymn all the Indian women are very fond of, and they 
always sing it as if they meant it. 

There is an old and feeble woman living a little farther down the 
alley. Ah! here she is, sitting in the sun outside her door. She 
wants to know who you are. And as I tell her, another lady who 
loves her, do you see what a pleasant light comes into her face at 
the thought? She says she believes in our Christ, and as far as she 
understands, I think she does. 

Just opposite, in that little mud hut, lives a little hunch-back. 
She is very bright and intelligent, but with a weary, pathetic look in 


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her face that is sad to see. Everybody despises her because it is 
believed that she must have been very wicked in a former birth to 
be born this way. Yes, come in and sit down just a minute; it will 
give her and her aunt something to think about afterward. 

Now, I am going to take you to the other side of the city. Just 
down that street is a dear, native lady, who became a Christian, but 
was shut in by her husband, so that we never see her any more. 
Over there is the new native church for Christians. At the dedica- 
tion service the other day fifteen of our native women were there, 
behind a curtain, listening to the services. We have a school in 
this house, but we will go into the back of the house where the 
women are—a widow and her sons’ wives, one of whom is a widow, 
also, and rigorously performs all the rites and duties that pertain to 
widowhood. That is she in the plain white dress, and shaven head. 
She does the work of the house, but they are not unkind to her. The 
old lady is asking us to sit down on the edge of the bed, andthe other 
daughter is bringing her baby to show. Isn’t he a splendid boy? 
and her first, so that she is very proud of him. The black rings 
around his eyes are put on to make them look larger. They enhance 
his beauty in his mother’s eyes, but rather spoil it in ours. Her 
sister, the widow, is called Rani, which means a queen. She always 
reminds me of a young lady I know in America. Good and gentle, 
and always anxious to do her duty just as far as she understands it. 
By and by when she grasps the truth of Christianity what a lovely 
Christian she will make. 

Her sister, the baby’s mother, is never tired of examining the 
stranger’s costume, and wants to know if those high boots do not 
hurt your feet, and if it is not warm to wear those things on your 
hands, Perhaps you might truthfully answer ‘‘ Yes” to both ques- 
tions, and if you lived here dispense with them. 

We will not go into this place on the other side of the alley, but 


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just look in at the door and say salaam to the kind-faced woman 
grinding behind that partition. 

This little girl in the next doorway has heard of us, and is 
begging us to see her sisters and mother. ‘‘ No, little Fahiman, we 
cannot go in to-day, as I saw your family yesterday, but we will give 
you this picture instead.” She is a little Mohammedan and very 
fond of pictures, of which she has a long row on the wall, and 
delights to add a new one at every opportunity. 

You must see one of my dearest friends among the Indian women. 
Her house is next to a temple over there, and she is coming to meet 
us. She is not high caste, but goes out of her house into this court, 
but no farther. She has the loveliest spirit that I ever met. She 
does not sayshe is a Christian, but I think is a good deal nearer to 
it than some who profess to be. She begs us to come in and sit 
a while, and wants to give us some sweetmeats, for that is an 
especial favor that Indian women pay their guests. When I am tired 
of everything and everybody else I come here and sit a while; and 
though the surroundings do not look very inviting to a stranger, yet 
I assure you I always come away refreshed. But now I must take 
you home. It is too late for you to be out any longer in the heat. 
Will you go again another day? My visiting list is very large. I 
could take you for many days and not exhaust it. My only reward 
shall be that you promise to think about those you visit, and make 
them your friends as they are mine. 


Such is the work in India of the missionaries of the WOMAN’S 
UNION MISSIONARY SOCIETY, an independent organization of women 
formed in 1860. The stations are in Calcutta, Allahabad, Cawn- 
pore and Jhansi, where thousands of zenana women are under instruc- 
tion. Two Orphanages have rescued hundreds of little girls, and a 


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Hospital at Jhansi is provided for sick women who have no other 
medical care in that populous district. We want your interest. Send 
for the MISSIONARY LINK, the organ of the Society, that you may 
_hear more of the work. Subscription, 50 cents. Club rates, 30 cents. 


Mrs. HENRY JOHNSON, Preszdent. 

pS Da DOREM US. \ Corresponding Secretartes. 
MISSaGaeL, SONS , 

Miss M. S. STONE, 


Miss E. B. STONE, 
Mission Room, 67 Bible House, New York. 


Assistant Treasurers. 


Checks payable to WOMAN’S UNION MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 


